Monday, April 28, 2014

In late April they spread manure on the fieldsthe same week the lilac hedges bloom,so the nose gets one of those symphonic challengesthat require you to stand out on the porch and breathe.

The earth goes around a corner, the dresser drawers slide outand naturally, we change our clothes,putting the long underwear away,taking out the short-sleeve shirts,

trying to make the transitionfrom psychological Moscowto psychological Hawaii.

When Mary left her husband in December,she made herself despise himas a way of pushing off,like you would push off from the wall of a swimming pool,

but then she gradually believed her own storyof how horrible he was,

and when I talked to her in March,she was still spitting on his memory;you would have thought she never had a heart.

There’s a wheel turning in the center of the earthand over it, our feet are always running, running,trying to keep pace.Then there’s a period of quietude and rue,when you want to crawl inside yourself,when you prefer ugliness to hope.

Last night the sunset was so pink and swollenthe sky looked like it had gotten an infection.

We were sitting on the lawn and sipping lemonade.Inflamed clouds were throbbing in the fevered light.Shannon murmured, Somebody better call a doctor.Kath said, Somebody get some aspirin.But nobody moved.

And the smell of lilacs and manure blew out of the fieldswith such complexity and sweetness, we closed our eyes.It had nothing to do with being good, or smart, or choosing right.It had to do with being lucky—something none of us had ever imagined.

Funds raised at the Bee help the Literacy Coalition to improve literacy levels in Central Texas through partnerships with literacy programs like GED preparation, ESL, computer literacy, children's literacy and more.

Every Tuesday night at Spiderhouse, poetry, score cards and cash prizes come together for an evening of competitive art. Twelve spoken-word artists battle it out for the weekly $100 in prize money to the top three artists. Five random judges are picked from the audience to score the poetry, and the audience is invited to cheer or jeer their favorite or least favorite poets or scores from the judges.

This isn't your grandma's polite evening of beat poets. This is a battlefield.

Join us for a fantastic sale! Everything is $2 or less! Come to our Get A Spine Sale at the Palmer Events Center on Friday, May 2 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday, May 3 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 4 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and stock up on as many book spines as you can carry, as well as music, movies and more. FREE admission. Parking is $7. The first 100 customers each day will receive a free HPB tote bag!*

*Limit one tote bag per person, 16 years of age and up. Offer valid Friday May 2 through Sunday, May 4 at Get a Spine Sale only.

We’re delighted to present an evening with writers Gregory Robinson and Adeena Reitberger.

Hothouse Literary Journal Premiere
May 4, 2014, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Come hear readings from the authors whose work is featured in Hothouse Literary Journal‘s Spring 2014 issue and be the first to get a copy! As the official literary journal of UT’s Undergraduate English Department, Hothouse is a collection of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction written by English majors. Copies of the journal are FREE and there will also be an electronic version released. This is a literature event you won’t want to miss!

Book Talk: The Buildings of Texas

DMA Arts & Letters LiveTimothy Egan - "Can't-Put-It-Down History"
Horchow Auditorium, April 29, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
Timothy Egan will share stories from his National Book Award-winning book, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl,which Walter Cronkite hailed as “can’t-put-it-down-history.” The New York Times says, “Egan uses the past powerfully to explain and give dimension to the present.” At this event he will do so by discussing the land and water conservation issues evoked in Alexandre Hogue’s bleak Dust Bowl landscapes currently on view at the DMA as well as those that threaten our future.

More Comic Book Day fun! Meet graphic novel artist Gershom Wetzel at your Flagship HPB on Saturday, May 3, from 2 - 4 pm. Wetzel will do drawings for kids as part of Comic Book Day at HPB.

Please join the Preston Royal Branch Library and author Joan McMahon Flatt as she discusses her new book "Powerful Political Women: Stirring Biographies of Some of History's Most Powerful Women." Her book discusses inspirational stories, from Esther to Hillary, and how these extraordinary women fought against injustice, and for equality.

Dates:

Saturday, May 3, 2014 @ 2:00 pm

Presented by TeCo Theatrical Productions, Inc.Join Hector Cantu, co-creator of Baldo Comic Series for a lively discussion - Cesar Chaviez Slept On My Bed! How Chicano Politics Launched A New Voice On The Funny Pages.

Sky Stories, Ancient and Modern

Native American storyteller Alex Mares and astronomer Francisco Carreto-Parra join up in this program to interweave Native American stories of the sun, moon, and stars and knowledge of the cosmos with astronomical knowledge from ancient people of many cultures and modern science. Local astronomers are providing telescopes for public viewing.

The event is free to museum members and $2.00 per person for non-members. It is suitable for adults and children of elementary school age and above. Each participant should bring a flashlight.

Note: Advance reservations are required and limited to sixty people due to limited seating and parking.

Inprint's First Friday Poetry Reading Series presents Marie Brown, Friday, May 2.
Inprint is proud to serve as a host for the First Friday Poetry Reading Series. The First Friday Series is the oldest poetry series in Houston and has been held monthly at Inprint House, 1520 West Main

MenilFest is an annual one-day festival of art, words and noise bringing together the visual, literary and performing arts organizations located on the Menil Collection campus. Now in its 6th year, MenilFest is a unique merger of literature, performance art and words--both spoken and written.

Make plans to attend Texas Tech University Press’s twelfth annual Literary Lubbock benefit dinner with books and authors, Thurs., May 1, 2014. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. at The Legacy Event Center in downtown Lubbock. Authors will sign books during a reception, which features local wines, followed by a dinner catered by L.E. Anderson of Honeychild Catering Solutions. Lubbock writer and musician Andy Wilkinson will host the event.

Heads up, Star Wars and Comic Book fans! Join us on Saturday, May 3, from 2 to 4pm, for a special visit with comic book character, courtesy of the Texas Comicon. Come meet, chat and take pics with Thor, Chewbacca, Spiderman or another comic book character at any San Antonio HPB store during this time. While you’re in store, ask about our Comic Book Giveaway and don’t forget that Texas Comicon tickets are on sale at all San Antonio HPB stores. See store for details.

Description: Poetry readings followed by a short birding walk on a Sunday in the park with birds. Poets and readers will read their own work and favorites from the poets around the world who have celebrated birds. Join us in the outdoor amphitheatre.

HOWE: Sure. The poem is a letter, actually, written to John that I started to write when I was struggling with writing poems all day, and I decided to just quit that and write John a letter, "What the Living Do."

(Reading) Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there. And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of.

(Reading) It's winter again. The sky's a deep headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through the open living room windows because the heat's on too high in here, and I can't turn it off. For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, the bag breaking, I've been thinking: This is what the living do.

(Readgin) And yesterday, hurrying along those wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk, spilling my coffee down my wrist and sleeve, I thought it again, and again later, when buying a hairbrush: This is it. Parking. Slamming the car door shut in the cold. What you called that yearning. What you finally gave up.

(Reading) We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We want whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss - we want more and more and then more of it. But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass, say the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep for my own blowing hair, chapped face and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless. I am living, I remember you.

Friday, April 25, 2014

What fun this is! Revoltby Qaisra Shahraz puts me in mind of The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, Pakistani village style. You have the zemindars, the landlords, in the hevalis, the mansions. You have the villagers: servants, shopkeepers and artisans. What happens when the lines begin to blur? What happens when people begin to forget their places in a caste society? What happens when East meets West?

Revolt takes place in the fictional Pakistani village of Gulistan and tells the story of three wealthy sisters and the tectonic changes that happen in their lives when the phenomenon of immigration and the Western notion of romantic love threaten to dismantle all they’ve ever known. As the story opens Mehreen’s son Ismail is flying home from London for his wedding; Gulbahar’s son Arslan is flying in from New York, a homecoming after completing his studies; and Rani is preparing for her daughter Saher’s wedding to Ismail. One more person has also come home to Gulistan for this important week: Gulbahar’s exiled daughter Laila has returned in hopes of seeing her brother. Laila hasn’t seen her family in 10 years, since she ran off and eloped with the potter’s son. Laila is persona non grata, as is her daughter who has never met her grandparents.

It is almost impossible to tell you anything else that happens because there are so many plot twists and surprises and secrets that seemingly-endless spoilers would be unavoidable. And none of Revolt should be spoiled. So let’s say this:

Ismail returns with a stow-away within a stow-away no one knew existed.

Arslan has harbored a love for someone else’s fiancée since he was a child and is bent on forcing his parents to reconcile with Laila.

Saher, a thoroughly modern woman in many ways – a lawyer in the city, will extend that same modernity to her private relationships and this will allow her, ironically, to remain in the village she loves.

Laila, dear Laila. I’m not going to tell you about Laila.

One of the elements I particularly appreciated is that the servants and villagers are as fully-realized as the figurative royalty living in the hevalis. Their stories are told just as faithfully, their humanity never slighted, at least not by Shahraz. One of my usual complaints about family-saga-type novels is that they drag along, what with all the jumping back and forth between the past and present. That doesn’t happen in Revolt. We are provided with the flashbacks necessary to advance the story and nothing more (or less). Accordingly, the pacing is relentless and the plotting practically flawless. The land itself is fondly rendered by the author, a native Pakistani who moved to the UK with her family as a small child.

Qaisra Shahraz

Qaisra Shahraz is a novelist, short story writer and scriptwriter. Previous works include The Holy Woman (which won the Golden Jubilee Award and is a best-seller in Turkey and Indonesia) and Typhoon. Shahraz was recognized in the Pakistan Power 100 List in 2012. She is currently at work on her fourth novel.

A closing thought: Revolt also reminded me of a Mexican telenovela, in the best way possible. Sure there’s melodrama but, unlike telenovelas, it never descends to farce and that’s what made this work so much fun to read. It’s not “heavy literature” but Shahraz handles her material with such affection for human foibles and a deft comedic touch that she examines some weighty issues without beating you about the head and shoulders with it. This planet of ours is shrinking by the day and by the end of Revolt you will have learned something about a culture clash that has instigated chaos across the globe. Like us, the characters here don’t handle the complexities well in the beginning but by The End they’ve come to realize that when you get right down to it, people everywhere are simply people. Our differences are much less important than our commonalities.

your life is your lifedon’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.be on the watch.there are ways out.there is a light somewhere.it may not be much light butit beats the darkness.be on the watch.the gods will offer you chances.know them.take them.you can’t beat death butyou can beat death in life, sometimes.and the more often you learn to do it,the more light there will be.your life is your life.know it while you have it.you are marvelousthe gods wait to delightin you.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Remember the 1340s? We were doing a dance called the Catapult.You always wore brown, the color craze of the decade,and I was draped in one of those capes that were popular,the ones with unicorns and pomegranates in needlework.Everyone would pause for beer and onions in the afternoon,and at night we would play a game called “Find the Cow.”Everything was hand-lettered then, not like today.

Where has the summer of 1572 gone? Brocade and sonnetmarathons were the rage. We used to dress up in the flagsof rival baronies and conquer one another in cold rooms of stone.Out on the dance floor we were all doing the Strugglewhile your sister practiced the Daphne all alone in her room.We borrowed the jargon of farriers for our slang.These days language seems transparent, a badly broken code.

The 1790s will never come again. Childhood was big.People would take walks to the very tops of hillsand write down what they saw in their journals without speaking.Our collars were high and our hats were extremely soft.We would surprise each other with alphabets made of twigs.It was a wonderful time to be alive, or even dead.

I am very fond of the period between 1815 and 1821.Europe trembled while we sat still for our portraits.And I would love to return to 1901 if only for a moment,time enough to wind up a music box and do a few dance steps,or shoot me back to 1922 or 1941, or at least let merecapture the serenity of last month when we pickedberries and glided through afternoons in a canoe.

Even this morning would be an improvement over the present.I was in the garden then, surrounded by the hum of beesand the Latin names of flowers, watching the early lightflash off the slanted windows of the greenhouseand silver the limbs on the rows of dark hemlocks.

As usual, I was thinking about the moments of the past,letting my memory rush over them like waterrushing over the stones on the bottom of a stream.I was even thinking a little about the future, that placewhere people are doing a dance we cannot imagine,a dance whose name we can only guess.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Thy beauty's form in table of my heart;
My body is the frame wherein 'tis held,
And perspective that is best painter's art.
For through the painter must you see his skill,
To find where your true image pictured lies,
Which in my bosom's shop is hanging still,
That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes.
Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done:
Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me
Are windows to my breast, where-through the sun
Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee;
Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art,
They draw but what they see, know not the heart.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Auguries of Innocence

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
A Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage
A Dove house filld with Doves & Pigeons
Shudders Hell thr' all its regions
A dog starvd at his Masters Gate
Predicts the ruin of the State
A Horse misusd upon the Road
Calls to Heaven for Human blood
Each outcry of the hunted Hare
A fibre from the Brain does tear
A Skylark wounded in the wing
A Cherubim does cease to sing
The Game Cock clipd & armd for fight
Does the Rising Sun affright
Every Wolfs & Lions howl
Raises from Hell a Human Soul
The wild deer, wandring here & there
Keeps the Human Soul from Care
The Lamb misusd breeds Public Strife
And yet forgives the Butchers knife
The Bat that flits at close of Eve
Has left the Brain that wont Believe
The Owl that calls upon the Night
Speaks the Unbelievers fright
He who shall hurt the little Wren
Shall never be belovd by Men
He who the Ox to wrath has movd
Shall never be by Woman lovd
The wanton Boy that kills the Fly
Shall feel the Spiders enmity
He who torments the Chafers Sprite
Weaves a Bower in endless Night
The Catterpiller on the Leaf
Repeats to thee thy Mothers grief
Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly
For the Last Judgment draweth nigh
He who shall train the Horse to War
Shall never pass the Polar Bar
The Beggars Dog & Widows Cat
Feed them & thou wilt grow fat
The Gnat that sings his Summers Song
Poison gets from Slanders tongue
The poison of the Snake & Newt
Is the sweat of Envys Foot
The poison of the Honey Bee
Is the Artists Jealousy
The Princes Robes & Beggars Rags
Are Toadstools on the Misers Bags
A Truth thats told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent
It is right it should be so
Man was made for Joy & Woe
And when this we rightly know
Thro the World we safely go
Joy & Woe are woven fine
A Clothing for the soul divine
Under every grief & pine
Runs a joy with silken twine
The Babe is more than swadling Bands
Throughout all these Human Lands
Tools were made & Born were hands
Every Farmer Understands
Every Tear from Every Eye
Becomes a Babe in Eternity
This is caught by Females bright
And returnd to its own delight
The Bleat the Bark Bellow & Roar
Are Waves that Beat on Heavens Shore
The Babe that weeps the Rod beneath
Writes Revenge in realms of Death
The Beggars Rags fluttering in Air
Does to Rags the Heavens tear
The Soldier armd with Sword & Gun
Palsied strikes the Summers Sun
The poor Mans Farthing is worth more
Than all the Gold on Africs Shore
One Mite wrung from the Labrers hands
Shall buy & sell the Misers Lands
Or if protected from on high
Does that whole Nation sell & buy
He who mocks the Infants Faith
Shall be mockd in Age & Death
He who shall teach the Child to Doubt
The rotting Grave shall neer get out
He who respects the Infants faith
Triumphs over Hell & Death
The Childs Toys & the Old Mans Reasons
Are the Fruits of the Two seasons
The Questioner who sits so sly
Shall never know how to Reply
He who replies to words of Doubt
Doth put the Light of Knowledge out
The Strongest Poison ever known
Came from Caesars Laurel Crown
Nought can Deform the Human Race
Like to the Armours iron brace
When Gold & Gems adorn the Plow
To peaceful Arts shall Envy Bow
A Riddle or the Crickets Cry
Is to Doubt a fit Reply
The Emmets Inch & Eagles Mile
Make Lame Philosophy to smile
He who Doubts from what he sees
Will neer Believe do what you Please
If the Sun & Moon should Doubt
Theyd immediately Go out
To be in a Passion you Good may Do
But no Good if a Passion is in you
The Whore & Gambler by the State
Licencd build that Nations Fate
The Harlots cry from Street to Street
Shall weave Old Englands winding Sheet
The Winners Shout the Losers Curse
Dance before dead Englands Hearse
Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born
Every Morn and every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night
We are led to Believe a Lie
When we see not Thro the Eye
Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day

Way Behind the Music with Lit Crawl Austin! Their first-ever Lit Crawl fundraiser April 24. It’s a benefit show called Way Behind the Music. The show features a notable lineup of Austin musicians, performers, and writers who’ll be taking center stage to read from the hilariously odd music memoirs from authors such as Justin Bieber, Flavor Flav, Sammy Hagar, Liberace, and Vince Neil. Get your tickets here. Austin

603 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78703

(512) 472-5050

Tuesday, Apr 22 at 7PM

National Book Award Finalist ELIZABETH MCCRACKEN speaking and signing Thunderstruck & Other Stories

We’re celebrating National Poetry Month with a very special edition of W. Joe’s Poetry Corner… it’s poetry karaoke time!

Puzzling Out Tender Buttons

Apr 24 @ 6:30 pm – Apr 24 @ 8:00 pm

2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the original publication of Gertrude Stein’s modernist classic,Tender Buttons. To celebrate this groundbreaking work, poet Daniel Carter has created a puzzle zine based on Tender Buttons.Daniel will be hosting an evening of Tender Buttons fun at Malvern Books, using these puzzles to explore the wit and wisdom of Stein’s masterpiece.

An Evening with Nicolas Hundley & Samira Noorali

Apr 26 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Join us for an evening with poets Nicolas Hundley and Samira Noorali.

The Lion & The Pirate Unplugged

Apr 27 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

In association with VSA Texas (The State Organization on Arts and Disability) and the Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities), we’re delighted to present an inclusive (mic-less) open mic for writers and musicians. Join us for this fun and friendly afternoon suitable for performers of all ages and abilities!